After life at 310kg, Jordan is slowly losing it

By
ADAM WRIGHT

After life at 310kg, Jordan is slowly losing it

Jordan Tirekidis has been inspired by fitness trainer Ivan Murray and weight-loss guru Mark Stephens who teamed up to help him go from over 300 kilograms down to 110 kilograms.

JORDAN Tirekidis has about 30kg to lose to reach his weight goal of 110kg.

If you just crunched those numbers in your head, the 140 kilograms you probably came up with is a long way short the 310kg he started at.

Yes - 310kg.

Eating 15 hash browns for breakfast, four Whopper Burger meals for lunch, two pizzas for a late-night snack, washing it down with two litres of Coke and then eating 12 Magnum ice creams for dessert will do that to you.

“I remember on one food binge I had 13 kilometres to drive and I bought 13 quarter pounders. I challenged myself to eat one per kilometre. I didn’t make it, I had three left,” Mr Tirekidis said.

He had a severe food addiction that was killing him and two-and-a-half years ago decided to turn his life around.

Mr Tirekidis is a Sydney resident who has basically lived in the Shoalhaven for the past two years while on a weight-loss journey.

When he first stepped on the scales at Mark Stephens’s office at the Little Forest Health Retreat in Milton he was one of Australia’s heaviest men.

But those scales could not confirm it. Their display only read ‘overload’.

Eating 15 hash browns for breakfast, four Whopper Burger meals for lunch, two pizzas for a late-night snack, washing it down with two litres of Coke and then eating 12 Magnum ice creams for dessert will do that to you.

Later a weighbridge confirmed his weight and then began a mental and physical journey that would save Mr Tirekidis’ life.

The pressure of running his food distribution business and dealing with other stresses in his life led to food becoming his crutch.

“I had reached a point where I wanted to do something drastic about my weight,” Mr Tirekidis said.

“I saw Mark on TV and contacted him. I had decided to get out of the family business and change my life,” he said.

He teamed up with Mr Stephens in Milton and fitness trainer Ivan Murray from the North Nowra Gym as well as a number of other Shoalhaven health professionals to tackle his weight problem.

It has been a long and slow journey, literally taking baby steps at the start.

Mr Murray remembers their first exercise session.

“We started with 15-metre walks. His first session on a cross-trainer machine lasted 30 seconds. Now he’s up to 30 minutes,” Mr Murray said.

“We had to take it easy. We didn’t want Jordan getting hurt either by too much movement too fast or by breaking any machinery.

“It was pretty scary. He had a journey and a half ahead of him.

“I had to stay positive for Jordan but at the same time we had to take it very slowly. It was pretty frustrating at times.

“It was inspiring to see Jordan get over each hurdle, but those hurdles would take a month to beat,” Mr Murray said.

One step at a time, a massive diet change and exercise two-hours-a-day and Mr Tirekidis is down from a 13XL size shirt to a 4XL.

He has kept his sense of humour and said he no longer felt like "an overweight zombie".

“Ivan and Mark have been powerhouses for me and with every five or ten kilograms I lose I feel like a different person,” he said.